How to convert an NTFS partition or drive to FAT32

N.B.: Via Ubuntu, and apparently other versions of Linux, NTFS is set as read-only; this is annoying. Although NTFS is technically a better file system than FAT32, it's only fully usable through Window$. The EXT3 file system is better than either, but Window$ doesn't understand it. For all-round compatibility, FAT32 is useful. I'm not keen on using one of the worst file systems, but I do like having it understood by everything. It's a bit like English, there's only one word for snow, but nearly everyone understands it.

N.B.2: The word "directory" is used at command line-level, the word "folder" is used within the GUI. They mean the same thing. Here, I've used them according to what screen you're on.

N.B.3: The "bash" shell is used as the standard command-line interface with Ubuntu. It seems like DOS, but it is so much better.

N.B.4: Although this guide starts with key-by-key instructions, it assumes you know some other things about Ubuntu towards the end of it. Check you can do these things before you start doing things.

The best method is to copy all the data from it, check it's copied, format the drive's partition(/s) as FAT32 (called "vfat" in Ubuntu's "bash" shell), copy all the stuff back on, then check it's back. Here's how:

STAGE 1 - Copy all the data from the drive:
 1. Plug in the NTFS drive as the only slave, ideally on the same IDE channel as the boot drive. This will make it a device called "hdb". Each partition will start "hdb" and end with a number.
 2. Open the "Applications" menu to select the "Accessories" sub-menu, then select the "Terminal" option.
 3. Find out where you are in the path by typing "ls" then [Return]. It should be in the "Home" directory, so it will say "Desktop" and "Examples" because they are the sub-directories within the "Home" directory.
 4. Type "mkdir whatever" and press [RETURN] to create a "whatever" directory.
 5. Type "sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/hdb1 whatever" and press [RETURN]. You might get an error, because the drive hasn't necessarily used the partitions in the way you expect, particularly if Window$ has had anything to do with it. If this happens, press the [Up] arrow key to bring up the same "sudo..." command and change the number 1 to 2. Repeat doing this until you get a number that works with no error messages. (Message to Linux nerds: If someone knows how to find out partition numbers with a simple command (not mesg's verbose output), please let me know.)
 6. Test the success of the mounting by typing "ls whatever" then pressing [Return]. You could get a "Permission denied" error message, which is OK because it's being a read-only partition/drive.
 7. Now it gets easier. Type "gksudo nautilus" and press [Return]. There could be a couple of irrelevant error messages then the Nautilus File Browser should open.
 8. Click on the "Up arrow" icon at the top.
 9. Double-click on the "home" folder.
10. There should be a folder named the same as your user name. Double-click on it.
11. There should be a new icon labelled "whatever" with a padlock mini-icon next to it (this is not a picture of the letter "i"). Double-click on it.
12. You should see all of the folders and files that are on the NTFS drive. Click on the "Up" arrow icon.
13. Right-click on the "whatever" icon, and select "Copy".
14. Using your navigation skills, find a place on your Ubuntu hard drive to put the NTFS partition's data, then paste it there.
15. On the new icon (it won't have a padlock on it), right-click to Rename it, e.g. "whatever copy". This is so that you now know which is the mounting to the drive and which is the newly-copied data.
16. If you have other partitions that you want to copy from and re-format, repeat steps 3 to 15.

STAGE 2 - Check it's copied:
17. Check everything has copied by doing a "Properties" check on the new "whatever copy" icon and the old one within the "home" folder. For how to do this: read "How To Do A Properties Check On A Drive Or Folder". Use the "Properties" option rather than just looking at Nautilus' status bar which will only show the items in the root of the folder. To compare, you can leave each "Properties" dialog box open, but note that the second one could well appear straight on top of the first, so it will need dragging out of the way. The "Free space" details will only be useful to check how much is left on the original drive; there will be a different amount free on your Ubuntu drive.
18. Optionally, to set the newly-copied files so that they can be easily accessed by users, select the "Permissions" tab and change the first "Folder Access" line (the Owner's) from "Access files" to "Create and delete files", and the "File Access" from "---" to "Read and write". Similarly, from within the "Group" setting, you could choose a user, then choose the same sort of "Folder Access" and "File Access" options. After setting this, click on the "Apply permissions to enclosed files" button. When finished, click on the "Close" button. Note that you will not be able to set any access options on the original NTFS drive because it is recognised as Read-Only.
20. Close Nautilus and return to the command-line bash shell.

STAGE 3 - Format the drive's partition(/s) as FAT32:
21. Replacing the "5" at the end with the actual partition number you want to format, type "sudo umount /dev/hdb5".
22. Using a Text Editor, write a short text file as a message to anybody who tries to boot the partition. It can be up to 411 characters long. Save it as "booterror.txt" in the same path as the command line.
23. Now we can format the NTFS partition. Think of a Volume label name, then, replacing "vol_label" here with the one you've thought of and replacing the "5" at the end with the partition number, type "sudo mkdosfs -c -f2 -F32 -i00000000 -m booterror.txt -n vol_label -r 512 -R 2 -S 4096 -v /dev/hdb5" then press [Return]. There will be some information about how the partition will be arranged. The computer will then show increasing numbers for a while.
24. Format any other partitions in the same way, by repeating this stage.

STAGE 4 - Copy all the stuff back on:
25. Create a mount point for the the newly-prepared partition by typing "mkdir /mnt/whatever32" and pressing [Return].
26. Mount the newly-prepared partition by typing "mount -t vfat /dev/hdb5 /mnt/whatever32".
27. Open a Nautilus window as root by typing "gksudo nautilus" and pressing [Return].
28. Find the contents of the "whatever copy" folder, select them all, then select Copy.
29. Find the "/mnt/whatever32" folder, select it, then select Paste. All of the folders and files should then copy into it.

STAGE 5 - Check it's back.
30. Check everything has copied by using the Properties check described before, comparing the new "/mnt/whatever32" folder with the old "whatever copy" folder.
31. Now you can remove the "whatever copy" folder. You can now unmount and re-mount the partition wherever you like.
32. That's it. There is probably an entirely command line-level way of doing all of the above, but this seems to be as quick with less typing. Done 32 of 32. kevinmarkwell@gmail.com
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